The city of Tualatin, Oregon, hosted its annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, an event that sees participants hollow out giant pumpkins, some weighing over 1,000 pounds, and use them as vessels to paddle across a lake in the city’s Commons Park.

Now in its 21^st year, the event combines light-hearted competition with a celebration of agricultural achievement. Growers spend months cultivating their record-sized pumpkins before they are carefully lifted into the water with cranes. Once launched, racers climb inside and paddle toward the finish line, cheered on by hundreds of spectators.

“You’ve got an exciting activity that crowds love, you’ve got the costumes, cheering people, spectacle, pumpkins sinking, it has everything,” Gary Kristensen said after emerging victorious in the first race of Sunday’s event in a 936-pound (425-kilogram) pumpkin whilst dressed up as the character Buddy from Will Ferrell’s holiday movie “Elf”.

For Kristensen, who has competed in the regatta since 2013, the activity has become much more than a once-annual affair. Earlier this year, he claimed a Guinness World Record for longest journey by pumpkin boat after paddling 58 miles (94 kilometres) on the Columbia River – breaking the record he had set the previous year.

The regatta continues to draw both seasoned competitors and newcomers, serving as a showcase of community spirit and ingenuity. What began as a small local celebration has grown into a light-hearted fixture of Oregon’s cultural calendar, bringing together growers, racers, and spectators for one of the state’s most distinctive autumn events.